Inside Boxing: Bringing boxing back to Greater New Bedford

It's an ambitious project, but the ultimate goal for a trio of New Bedford men is bringing boxing back to New Bedford.

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By Bob Hanna

southcoasttoday.com

By Bob Hanna

Posted Mar. 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Bob Hanna

Posted Mar. 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

It's an ambitious project, but the ultimate goal for a trio of New Bedford men is bringing boxing back to New Bedford.

It starts Friday night with the first of what they hope will become a series of bi-monthly amateur boxing shows at the Seaport Inn in Fairhaven.

"Boxing used to be big in New Bedford," said Ebony Silva, one of those three ambitious ring aficionados. "New Bedford used to be a great fight town. We want to bring it back. What we want to do is run amateur boxing shows at least every other month.

"Eventually, if all goes well, we'd like to do professional shows."

Silva is one of the "S" in S & S Entertainment, which is putting on Friday night's show in association with Heart Boxing and On Point Boxing, both of New Bedford.

The other "S" belongs to Israel "Reysito" Santiago, who runs the Heart Boxing program and is the manager of New Bedford pro boxers Jonathan Vazquez and Kevin Cobbs. He is assisted by his brother and trainer, Nestor Gonzalez.

The third man in the enterprise is "Sucra" Ray Oliveira, the former three-time world title challenger who heads the On Point program.

The two boxing clubs are separate entities, but work together in the same New Bedford gym at 59 Talkiln Place in the North End and are often interchangeable.

Oliveira, for instance, helps work the corners of both Vazquez and Cobbs in their fights, while Silva will work the corners of the On Point boxers when needed.

Also available for fighters in both programs is strength and conditioning coach Sharik Mendes, who works out of the same gym.

"The amateur shows aren't just for our guys," said Silva, who is affiliated with both of the New Bedford clubs. "It also benefits fighters from other gyms in the area. The fighters in this area aren't active enough during the year.

"When they fight in these tournaments, they might be fighting guys with 30 or 40 or more fights, where our guys might have just a handful of fights. That puts them at a big disadvantage.

"Our fighters are inactive way too much during the year. So why not start doing shows of our own?"

The response has been encouraging for the most part, though some gyms in the area have yet to buy into it.

When Silva, Santiago and Oliveira first put their heads together on running an amateur show, they were thinking maybe 12 fights, which is about the norm for amateur shows.

They are now looking at 21 bouts, with fighters coming in from Holyoke, Worcester, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and as far away as Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Brooklyn contingent of four boxers are from the Judah Brothers gym. That's Judah as in former two-division world champion Zab Judah and his brothers.

Judah, incidentally, will try to lift the WBC junior welterweight world title from the head of Danny Garcia April 27 (postponed from Feb. 9 due to a rib injury to Garcia).

There are an even dozen local boxers from On Point and Heart Boxing scheduled to appear, including four junior boxers (16-and-under).

Open Class (more than 10 fights) boxers will include On Point's Anthony Vieira of Wareham and Ray Oliveira Jr., son of Ray Sr. Both will fight in the 155-pound division, but not against each other.

Vieira, a former national junior champion, lost a close decision to three-time New England Golden Gloves champion Gerald Schifone of Big East Boxing in Stoughton in the Souther New England Golden Gloves Tournament in Fall River in January.

Also competing will be Efren Nunez of On Point, who reached the 141-pound Novice finals in the Southern New England tournament before losing a decision to defending champion Roberto Colon of the Fall River PAL.

Other Novice local fighters from On Point include Christian Andrade (126), Louis Smith (142), and super heavyweight Isaiah Charles (245).

I know from the feedback I get on my boxing column that there are a lot of boxing fans out there in the Greater New Bedford area. And if you think these amateur shows are a good idea, you might want to let the organizers know by going to the Seaport Inn (just over the bridge) Friday night.

Doors open at 4 p.m., with the weigh-ins at 5 and the first bout scheduled for 7.

Tickets ($25 for men, $20 for ladies) are available at the front counter in the Seaport Inn, or by going to ebonysilva32@gmail.com.

Bob Hanna covers boxing for The Standard-Times. Contact him at sports@s-t.com